Legacy of the Fourth Guyver
by maX Volnutt
Summary: Chronos Japan has fallen but Chronos is not dead. Sho is slowly losing his grip on reality, when a shadow of a another Guyver is cast. *Chapter SEVEN is finally up!*
1. Did I die?

Disclaimer: I did not create any characters from Bio-Booster Armour Guyver, nor am I writing this for personal profit of any kind.

A/N: Welcome to my first Guyver fic! Legacy of the Fourth Guyver is set in an alternate reality that splits from the official story line right after the fall of Chronos Japan. Just thought you ought to know. Don't be afraid to review (or flame as the case may be)! To any fans of the other Guyver 4, I have nothing to do with her, and I have never read one of her fics, so I suggest you stop reading now.

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The Legacy of the Fourth Guyver

Chapter the first: Did I die?

"Mr. Fukamachi will stop your daydreaming and pay attention!" Was Mr. Inaka's shrill, nasal screaming meant for me? I don't know how I should feel. I think I'm supposed to be embarrassed. How could I have known what to feel if everything was in this haze? A fog that hasn't lifted since that run in with Enzyme. It's plagued me from the time I . . . Did I die? Could it have death if I'm still here?

"Don't think so loudly Guyver one." A voice ran through my mind, interrupting my thoughts. A voice that emanated from the vicinity of my spinal cord.

"I'll never get used to this, Agito," I thought back to my invisible companion.

"I'm trying to keep Gyro off of our trails so be quiet. It's hard to think when your damn musings keep crawling up my back."

"I'm sorry it's just that . . ."

"You don't need to explain, I already heard it. Don't worry about that hazy feeling. Your brain hasn't fully reconstructed itself yet. Just watch out if you start bleeding for no reason or if your flesh starts to melt."

"Very reassuring, now get back to sweet talking Chronos." So that was it. It had nothing to do with if I was alive or dead or if I was real. Nothing philosophical. Unless you consider knowing that your brain is regrowing philos—

"Fukamachi would you pay attention!" Snap back to reality. "Like I was saying, during the terrorist act attack on the school, we, regrettably, lost some of our best students," he lied. It was an attack by the hyper Zonoid team five. Not an attack on the school but an attempt to kill me. Or at least what lived inside of me. It would have been successful if Agito hadn't saved me. It still didn't matter. I still wound up dead, and Chronos was still able to cover the whole thing up. I wound up dead. I never would have guessed I would have used those words.

"So, we our class will be taking on the students from classes three, five and eleven." Class five. That explains why Mizuki is here. She tried to talk to me before, tried to ask me about what happened. Not yet. How can a walking corpse with a half-formed brain like me talk to such a beautiful lotus. Loving Mizuki as Sho Fukamachi was one thing, but I was no longer Sho, or even a human being. I am The Guyver.

A/N: Ha ha, very funny. A reference to that horrible live action movie. I'm sorry.

Class thirteen wasn't among those mentioned. It would have been good to have Tetsuro to talk to. Nothing better than a friendly face when your questioning your own reality. Of course that would have been too much to ask. The Chronos controlled school would want to separate us as much as possible. "Along with the other classes we have accepted one exchange student from the United States." What?! I hope my brain can continue to heal while it spins. The school couldn't take on more student in it's current condition. It was already one hell of a task to avoid all of the construction. Of course if he was an exchange student then they must have given up another student. My eyes scoured the room looking for someone missing who wasn't already dead. Natzuki! They took Natzuki. I should have known they would take one of the few people keeping Mizuki sane. They'll never stop until we're all dead and my armor is in a lab somewhere.

"Ah, here he is now." He walked through the door to quite a few strange looks. Though he was wearing the traditional black school uniform, he looked anything but uniform. The black jacket was open down the front and his shirt underneath was untucked. His hair was oddly spiky and stuck up at completely off kilter angles. I couldn't really tell well from my distance but there also looked like something was wrong with the way the light reflected of his right eye. American eh? Yes, a definite cowboy.

"Go ahead, son introduce yourself son," urged Mr. Inaka in slurred English.

"No need for my language," he said in our tongue. His Japanese was fluent, not at all the stiff forced words that tourists spoke from their little dictionaries. "My name is Maxwell Volnutt, but if it helps your comfort level you can call me Hajime." He was worried about _our_ comfort? That seemed too courteous. God it's been so long since I forgot how to trust.

"Okay, Hajime, why don't you take a seat over . . . Ah! Right there by Ms. Segawa." By Mizuki?! Could this be more of Chronos?! NO. No, I need to relax. It's probably just my brain going through whatever it needs to go through to be _my_ brain again. He walked slowly through the isles of seats, accompanied by every pair of eyes in the room. As he walked by my desk I could see there was something definitely something wrong with his eye. But something in me told me to gaze down to the floor when I tried to get a better look. At least this way I could see that rather than sneakers or dress shoes he was wearing heavy boots with plenty of zippers and belts. Americans.

He took his seat behind my Mizuki. Was it just me or did she not even try to look at him? This raised my spirits a very small amount.

Mr. Inaka made us each introduce each of us introduce ourselves in turn. When it came to me I nearly choked. What was my name? "Err, Sho Fukamachi." Hajime, who had been so uninterested with our names, got a sudden strange look on his face, but in a second it was gone. I must have imagined it. Nothing better than having a huge corporation with an army of men who can turn into monsters trying to kill and your friends to stir up a little paranoia.

"There!" said Mr. Inaka "Now that the pleasantries are over we can get on with the Lesson. Now who can tell me what a 'mandala tessellation' is? Anyone? Anyone? Maybe our new student? Hajime?"

Hajime blinked and said matter of factly "It's a shape that can infinitely fit together with itself from any side or angle and is horizontally and vertically symmetrical." His voice was dark, silky and somewhat monotonily calm. It reminded me of Agito.

"I . . . err . . . Yes, that's right," said Mr. Inaka, looking dumbfound.

"So you say this American exchange kid knew _all_ of Inaka's questions? Damn, I don't think I've even got three of his . . ." It felt great to finally talk to Tetsuro. We hadn't said much since Guyver III and I destroyed the Chronos Japan headquarters. He was being his same jolly, jovial self, despite all the chaos. I think he really believed that Chronos was willing to give us a break before striking again. "You don't think he might be . . ."

"With them?" I finished for him "Yes I do."

"Well why don't you just ask Makishima?"

"Agito? I can't. He's scouting with some Chronos footsoldiers, trying to get them off of our scent. If I talk to him know I could disrupt his thoughts."

"Hey, shut up. Here he comes. Taking the grand tour, I see." Hajime was being guided past a construction area by one of my 'good friends,' Yamamoto.

" . . . And here's where one of the bombs went off," said his tour guide.

"Don't you mean where a monster smashed the wall?" I said, dipping my head in.

"Dammit, Fukamachi! You're always saying the same stupid things!" he 'replied' while slamming me down with his foot.

"Hmm heh." Hajime was laughing a bit.

"Whats this? Old stoneface cracks?!" said Yamamoto. "You haven't said a single thing since I started showing you around, and now your laughing at Fukamachi's stupid joke?" He was laughing at it. Maybe because he knew it was monsters. The hyper Zonoids.

"Oh, it's just," he began returning to is chiseled continence, "You're acting just like characters from an anime."

"Anime?"

"One of your cartoons." The truth was staring me in the face, a burning green crack in reality. I was in a cartoon. Funny as hell, it was the most horrible thing I could think of.

"I . . . I" No words for the ideas rushing through my control metal infused mind.

"Err, Fukamachi? Did I say something wrong?"

"Uh, no."

"Listen, Sho. Can I talk to you a little more privately?" so it must be true. He must be with Chronos.

"Y-yeah. Sure." I could feel the condensed Guyver organism throb on my back. I looked over to Yamamoto, realization dawning on his face.

"Oh. I see. I can tell when I'm not wanted," he said walking away. He muttered something about our ingratitude before he was out of earshot. His eye . . . The pupil is white and the rest is black. What did it mean? Was he partially blind? I shouldn't care, either way. If he was from Chronos than he would be dead in thirty seconds anyway.

"Well, Fukamachi," he began, "I guess I should deliver my message, from your new gods!" he broke out in a grimace. Before I could even let my call for the Guyver fly from my lips, a dull pain shot through my body. It was hard to breathe, and I collapsed to my knees. I felt another blow this time to my jaw. All I saw was sky and a streak of my own blood flung into my eyes from my lip.

I scrambled to my feet, my vision still blurred. "GUUUUYV--"

"Don't bio-boost," came Tetsuro's voice. He was lying sprawled on the ground, blood sprayed across his face from a gash on his cheek, his glasses lay some four feet away. "He's already gone."

A/N: There ya' go! My very first Guyver chap! Hoped you enjoyed it. Special thanks to Green Day, Orgy, Highlander Comics, Max Payne & Rockstar games, Pik who introduced me to this site, and especially to a three inch by three inch by three inch wooden cube. And remember kids: Our future looks brighter, when the young are born so cold hearted.


	2. Funny as Hell

Chapter the second: Funny as Hell

Or the Ode to Max Payne

            Infinite darkness.  Nowhere to walk but a paper-thin path of blood.  Where was I?  No, that didn't matter.  I couldn't think of that now, there's somebody screaming.  Or crying?  I ran-- or is I'm running?  Am I still there now? — down the crimson trail, my movements sluggish.  It felt as if I was seeing it from afar, just a bystander.  I couldn't feel anything, but somehow I knew my feet were slipping.  I fell from my bloody trek.  I grasped madly for a ledge, but all there was was the skinny rouge rope.  My hands fell through it like I was trying to catch water.  I fell into the darkness until the end of time.  The only comfort was the surrounding shadow.

            Words long since lost came back to me from deep within an obscure part of my psyche.  "Maybe you're too deep into your _animation."  The truth split my skull like an ice pick.  The vibrant, flat colors, shadows falling into perfect black lines, and the impossible situation of finding this creature that now resides in me.  Funny as hell, it was the most horrible thing I could think of.  The constant terror I felt was all the time accented by an overwhelming sense of déjà vu._

            "Waky, waky, Guyver one."   My eyelids split open to the comforting picture of my own bedroom ceiling.  I jumped upright and spun around looking for the voice that had awoken me's owner. It took me only a moment more to realize that it was traveling up my own spine.

"A-Agito?  Is that you Agito?"

            "Zeus?  No, not Zeus."  A cold chill ran throughout my body.  Who could be able to talk to me through the Guyver?!  The voice was familiar but the metallic overtones sent there by the mechanism that allowed him to speak through my back kept me from recognizing it.  Whoever it was definitely had a Guyver, or at least some kind of replica.  The notion hit me like ten thousand tons of burning paranoia.

            "Hajime?"  I thought in less than a whisper.

            "Hajime.  Ha!  No, not that fool," he replied.  The laugh felt like a dozen ice cubes sliding down my throat.  I didn't know whether to be relieved, or even more frightened.  "No, I'm just . . . I hate to sound like a soap opera . . . Just a friend."

            "Can't belei--"

            "I don't care if you believe.  I've only to tell you to keep a close eye on your father and Mizuki.  Its not that I care if they die, but if they do it will make it much easier to get a hold of your control medal."

            "Wait, who are you!?"  The words almost burst from my mouth.  The answer I received was only silence.

            The next day the first thing to meet my ears was an announcement from the television down stairs.

            ". . . section that collapsed bars Shinlong High School's only entrance.  As a result it will be closed for at least the next two weeks," shot the reporter with the snake he used for a tongue.  It was all more propaganda from our good friends at the Chronos Corporation.  They would have told the student council members, even a secretary like me.  Besides, the school has four entrances.

            It was all right.  I'm glad they closed it.  I wouldn't know what to do if I had another encounter with Hajime.  I couldn't very well call my armor in the middle of the school.  Chronos would make sure anyone who saw it would end up deader than me.  I couldn't bear to have anymore innocent blood spilled on my account.

            I would have to call Mizuki and Tetsuro.  It would be easier to keep watch over them and my dad if they were in one spot.  I didn't know whom it was that called me, but I was still going to take his advice.  Not because he said he was my friend, but because he was, and more than that, because I am a Guyver.

A/N: Ack!  Too short!  Ah, I know I'll add some dramatic after math from the encounter with Hajime.  From _his point of view!  Muahahahaahahahahahaha!!!_

            His blood was still warm on my fist.  His friend's —Tetsuro I think it was—his was rolling steadily off the leather of my boot.  The smell . . . I had killed hundreds, maybe more, and yet the smell of blood still bothered me.  It somehow reminded me of the Zonoid development tubes.  My eventual fate.  Trained to be a hyper Zonoid by the age of seventeen.  I sicken myself.

            I'm sorry Fukamachi, but you're just another step.  I refuse to be just another Zonoid.  It's only my luck that Zeus has placed you so perfectly in his plans.  

            "I'm sorry," I said aloud "I'm sorry for what I've done and for what I will do."

            My thoughts turn from my horrible plans to my surroundings.  I was perched gargoyle-like on the very top of the school.  It took me three years to find a haven back in Colorado.  I could have never hoped to find this place if I hadn't jumped up here after my fight, make that massacre, with Fukamachi.  Beauty can be found even in the wake of hatred.

            A cloud is moving over the mountains.  A storm is coming.


	3. The Zolord

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Chapter the Third: The Zolord

"WHAT?!" Tetsuro wasn't taking the news very well. "Another Guyver?! But- but they said there where only three units!"

"Heh. We already knew you could never trust what Chronos says. I never believed that there were only three, just like I don't believe that Riechman is dead."

"And so this . . . friend said to keep a close watch on your father?" I confirmed with my silence. "_And_ he knew who Hajime was?"

"That doesn't concern me as much as his knowing that Agito calls himself Zeus."

"Would you let me finish?! I was going to say that if he knows that, then maybe he's working from inside Chronos. We can just ask Agito when you ask him about Hajime—"

"We can't ask Agito anything! Didn't I tell you I can't contact him now?!" I shouted wiping the triumphant look from Tetsuro's Face.

"I. . . Oh."

Mizuki just sat on my bed silent. Her eyes were vacant. Terrified. She didn't need to be afraid. Sho Fukamachi, a disembodied arm in the woods was powerless to help her, but Guyver would protect her.

"Mizuki . . ."

"Sho. Don't let them kill Mr. Fukamachi." Even when her own life was in danger she still put my father first. I wrapped my arms without thinking. It was the first time I had touched her since we embraced in the rain of fire and glass, as Chronos Japan sank into nothing.

Tetsuro didn't care that his best friend, the armored protector and his sister, the damsel in distress were in love. He simply smiled his gentle smile and said, "I'm going to go check on Mr. Fukamachi. I think he's got the game on . . ." He walked out of the room muttering run stats, leaving only her and me.

"Maxwell! What is it you wished to speak with me about?" I nearly winced when he used my real name. I hated it when that name was used by people who I don't consider a friend. It was the only thing my father gave me before Chronos took me to be trained as a Hyper Zonoid. A gift I guarded as selfishly as a child with a favorite toy. I always used a pseudonym wherever I went. Hajime here, Joshua in America. Those were the only two I still remember.

"Err, Sir it's a my position as a hyper Zonoid. As you know I'm scheduled to go through the bio-treatment during the three weeks the school is closed."

"And?"

"Well Mr. uh . . ."

"Valkus. And that's Doctor not mister." So this was the famed Dr. Valkus. Not exactly the way I imagined him. He was robed, though I didn't find this strange for someone who probably thought he was a living embodiment of god. He was balding up top, but the hair he had along with his beard was white and long enough to make him look more like a sage than a doctor. By far the most outstanding part of his features was the jewel. The chicken egg-sized ruby orb sat in the middle of his forehead, wreathed by tangled veins. The skin was stretched so tightly over this blood vessel trim that it was possible to see them throb as they transferred vital juices to and from his brain. I noticed all of this, of course, only after I thought of three ways to kill him on the spot. An old habit of mine.

"_Dr._ Valkus, then. What I was going to say was—" I was just then cut off by The doors to the office whipping open. It was Agito Makashima. He was dressed in the field uniforms of the foot soldiers. As he removed his helmet a bloody bandage around his forehead became visible. What really amazed me was that he was able to keep that pretty little head of hair of his slicked back despite the helmet and the bandage.

"Ah yes, Agito!" began Valkus, turning from me.

"Why was I called back?!" he spat. There was so much loathing in Makashima's voice that I could almost taste it.

"Well Agito! An elite like your self shouldn't be out commanding foot soldiers! I have another assignment for you. Just allow me to finish up with our greenie here," he said wheeling back to me. Did he call _me_ green?! I know Valkus's reputation, and I could kill that old fool without even sweating. Zolord or not.

"Sir. I just wanted to say . . . I should be a Zolord, not just a goddamned hyper." His expression immediately changed from tired old man to just plain pissed.

"A. . . Zolord . . . All of our Zolords have been with us for at least forty years and have proven themselves worthy at every turn. You have only been with Chronos a little over sixteen years and—'

"I'm only seventeen! And in those years I've eliminated more and bigger threats to the company than any of those dodery old fools! Yes, Doctor. The only reason I was never promoted to Elite was because I killed my commanding officer. Even then I would have been courtmarsheled and sentenced to death, but I was too valuable. I was the one put in charge of the Rocky Mountain excavation project, did you know that Doctor?'

"So. That _was_ you." There was nearly a minute of silence in which the only thing in the room that moved was the pulsating veins in the good doctor's forehead. "Fine," he said "I will give you a chance. I will put you in charge of capturing the Unit G. If you succeed you will be promoted to Zolord. But if you fail," he grimaced "You will be the test subject for the Enzyme II project."

He went to his huge oak topped desk and took a seat. "Oh and Agito, it looks like I don't have another assignment for you. You may go. Both of you."

A/N: They're short, don't be pissed! To all those waiting for action, don't worry. The bio-boosting will come! 

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Make your contributions to Pik's war on Avril by reading and reviewing her fics! NOW DAMMIT! 


	4. Plan

**Chapter the Fourth: Plan**

            "So far all of your plans have failed for one reason," I lectured.  Me and twenty fairly high ranking soldiers sat hunched in the back of a van plastered with computers and electronics.  Exactly what you would think of when you hear the words "secret mission."

"And that flaw is your targeting.  You've been attacking the Guyver directly and every time your Zonoids were completely massacred.  Haven't you people ever been told?  Aim for the horse if you want to hit the master."

            "But sir," piped one of the nameless foot soldiers "We've tried taking his friends."

            "Ah, yes.  The Segawa siblings.  Good concept, but the gashes you've been putting in Fukamachi are too shallow.  Bio-booster armor doesn't tear easily, and we want to pierce the heart.  Hmm, I can tell from your stupid looks that you're not understanding my metaphors.  I'll put this in terms a little more laymen.  We need to get someone closer to him.  Bring up a file on his father."

            "His father?  Won't he be a little hard to kidnap?"

            I look to the foot soldier that had spoken, smiled and said, "No.  Of course not.  Only because this is no simple kidnapping.  When you go in to take the boy's father, I'll take Fukamachi himself."

            "What?!" exclaimed one or two of them.

            "You heard me.  Don't think for a moment that we're going to take him for imprisonment at the Relic's Point base.  That would be too much of a risk.  I'll take him into the mountains where I'll keep him entertained."

            "Sir, if you don't mind my asking—"

            "I don't."

            "How are you going to be able to keep the Guyver away if you don't have any hyper Zonoid troops?"

            "Don't worry your foolish little head.  I have someone."

            How long had I lay with her?  It was already dark.  I must have been here with my arms around her for hours.

            "Mizuki?" I whispered into her ear.  It was no use, she was asleep.  The only noise came from Dad and Tetsuro's cheers, still fixated on the baseball game.  How could the same place who gave us baseball give us that scum, Hajime, son of Chronos.  Don't worry Mizuki.  We won't let him touch you.

            My thoughts were suddenly torn to shreds when the window burst apart in a rain of crystal tears.  I sprung to my feet and Mizuki sat up on the bed.  A figure was outlined in the window frame, hunched like a Gargoyle.  I couldn't bio-boost in here!  It was so cramped that the energy field would destroy Mizuki.

            My head cocked backwards when I was startled by a second crash from downstairs.  When my head turned back a second later the figure was less than two feet away from me, and his leather booted foot raised mid swing.  I tried to move from the way but too late.  The hard metal from a zipper on the side of his foot connected with my neck, and all was black.

            The phone was ringing.  Answer it.  Would you answer the goddamn phone?!  I reached into the black and drew forth a gray thirties style earpiece.

            "Hello?"

            "He feels like a grishnak on his banana wrist and the manga man lives outside of his body.  The seringe of Valkyre won't let him leave the set walls of his video game, and he describes every moment of incubating bloody floors on hotel napkins . . ." It was spouting gibberish.  A wrong number and a bad line.  That really didn't matter, however because the receiver was slowly changing in my hand.  It rippled and reformed.  I looked at it puzzlingly.  That is if I had a face.

            It was now the one thing I didn't want to see.  It had made itself an unbonded Guyver unit.  I gripped  it tightly as I could despite my longing to throw it away.  I brought it an inch from my face.  The living tissue under the bio-metallic casing closed itself quickly over control medal.  It had blinked at me.

            "Wakee, wakee, Guyver One."  My eyes opened, this time with no comforting bedroom ceiling.  I scuttled to my feet and quickly took in my surroundings.  It was they outskirts of the forest.  We couldn't have been far from school.  I looked to where the voice was coming from. Someone was standing just inside the forest, veiled in shadow.

            "Wh-who's there?!"  I called.  I didn't need to ask.

            "Just a friend.  But a friend who knows that it's in my best interest to make sure you don't go after your father."

            "Guyver IV!"

            "BIO-BOOST!" he shouted.  The woods were suddenly illuminated enough to see his face, but by the time I managed to look it was already obscured by his unit.  Several trees were incinerated, pushing the forest's hairline back several yards.

            In the crater was the glory-demanding figure of the fourth Guyver.  His armor was a shade of forest green, and the muscle tissue mail underneath was a deep navy. His armor was sleeker and more organic looking than my own, the way Guyver II's was, and it was accented by many flamboyant yet purposeful spikes.  His head looked strangely large and oblong, but that was probably because it housed four head sensors rather than only two.

            But the truly remarkable thing about this Guyver was now unfolding from back.  Huge bat-like wings with a span of eight feet or more.  They were webbed with that same dark blue muscle tissue.  He flapped them once and rose several meters into the air.  Two shots of green light shot from his head beam threw up burnt chunks of earth as they hit on either sides of me.  I wasn't going to wait for him to stop firing warning shots.  It was time to kill a friend.

            I filled my lungs with air and bellowed, "GUUUYYYVAAAAAAA!"


	5. Exit Wounds

****

Chapter the Fifth: Exit Wounds

"Where are we?" said Mr. Fukamachi.

"A Chronos holding cell." I replied solemnly.

"Tetsuro?! You're in this goddammed hell hole too?"

"Not the first time either. Yeah, I've been here for about an hour. Where the hell were you?"

"What? What are you talking about?"

"We were kidnapped a while ago, but those goons only just brought you in. Where were you?" I said all of this as calm as I could muster but I couldn't hold in my anxiety anymore. "Did you see Mizuki?!"

"N-no, I don't think so . . . I . . . I don't remember." Dear god, what did they do to him? They couldn't have . . . No. Not possible.

"Don't worry Mr. Fukamachi. The best thing to do is try and get some sleep. Sho or Agito will be along to save us any minute now." I settled myself down onto the steel-hard bed so that I faced the wall.

"Agito? Makashima? That nice boy from Sho's student council? What the in the name of hell is going on?!" I sat up again, though I didn't turn to face him.

"All right. I suppose it's time to tell you everything.

A/N: If it helps your imagery, if this oncoming fight sequence was ever animated it would probably look a lot like the Wing Zero/Nataku fight from New Mobile Report Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz.

"True colors, Guyver Four?!" I called to the menacing knight. He responded by firing two more shots from his headbeam. I leaped from their way, but only fast enough to feel the hot slivers of light sear my shoulder the slightest bit.

I couldn't allow him to have an advantage. I may not have wings, but that doesn't mean I can't fly. Even as I thought I could feel the area behind my belt line tighten and the gravity around me becoming less and less. My body rose slowly into the air until it was level with his. I couldn't see Guyver IV's face, but somehow I knew he was pleased to see me do this. He suddenly rotated in air the so that he was nearly parallel to me and lunged toward me, feet first. His spike tipped foot caught me sharply across the chin. He quickly leveled out, but I already had started to swing my fist at him. 

My strike hit him squarely in the center of his chest. He began to fly backwards but he almost automatically thrust his wings to their full span and the wind resistance quickly stopped him. What surprised me most was how much my hand was hurting.

"Ha! Nice try Guyver One, but I went for the premium package, complete with extra thick heart casing!" Damn him.

He flew at me again, this time with his forearm raised. I knew what was coming. The blade that protruded upward from near my elbow suddenly grew from a mere seven inches to about two feet, and began to vibrate steadily. His did likewise. The sound of the blades colliding was almost vomit inducing. The pitch of it was so horrible my sight seemed to smear.

One of his monstrous bat wings flickered past my face as he swerved around me to strike again. I tried to face him but too late. I felt his sword plant itself deep into the flesh of my back. I fell through the air for several feet before I managed to catch myself. I rounded to face him. He was already lowering himself to my height. A bore a scarlet streak across his breastplate where my blood had sprayed him.

Okay, time for a new strategy. I can't use a melee attack on him because those wings give him better maneuverability up here. I've got to clip those damned wings.

I cupped my hands as if gripping around an invisible basketball. A sphere of purest pressure, like a tiny black hole grew in the space between them. I flung my arms at him and sent the gravity orb flying at him. It stopped no more than a foot from his face and burst into a hundred smaller spheres, each traveling in a unique direction. What the hell was going on?! There! A flicker of light was coming from the silver orb at his waist. Tha' bastard made some kind of barrier!

"You're a weakling Guyver One! Let me show you how it's done!" He raised one hand to the sky spread fingered. A pressure bomb grew from his palm. And continued to grow . . . Soon it was more than three meters in diameter! He launched toward me.

"AAAAAAARRRRRGGGHHHHGG!" It had missed me by four or five feet, but the gravity around it was so great that it still tore my arm clean off. "YOU BASTARD! You just wait until it grows back!" It was an empty threat, more to console myself than to frighten him. I looked at my stump, gushing blood. I cauterized it quickly with my headbeam, but I was startled away from it less than a second later. The ball had continued along its path straight to the Earth. I watched in horror as a huge section of forest fell in upon it self while simultaneously being torn apart.

I don't know how he had gotten so powerful, but one thing was for sure. He had left me one option. I reached to my chest and ripped open my breastplate, flicks of mucus that had held it closed flicking up into my face. Particles of energy from the air drew themselves to the membrane that was my ultimate weapon. The Mega Smasher.

"No barrier will save you from this!" He replied by plunging his fingers in-between the plates of his own chest. The sight that met my eyes nearly sent me tumbling from the air.

He was housing four, not two Mega Smasher receptacles! And they appeared to already be completely charged!

"What do you do, Fukamachi?" he replied calmly, "You fire, I fire. The Mega Smasher is just a miniature Big Bang, so if they collided it may very well be enough to destroy this little planet you seem to love so much. Stale mate. Hmm heh heh." His cold laughter split the air. Where had I heard it before?

Suddenly a thin streak crossed near Guyver Four's face and his right wing tore from his back in a shower of blood.

"ARHG! WHA—" he screamed as he fell from the air. I searched for the source of the shot. There in the middle of a very nearby clearing, a pistol was smoking from the rolled down window of a cherry red Jaguar.

A/N: YAY! Here he comes! The entrance of everybody's favorite gun toting, badass freelance journalist! We finally get the coolest character in the show!

I had spent one second to long staring at this mystery ride. A beam burned directly into my eye. God, nothing hurts like having your eyeball being seared out by a beam of white-hot light. It sent me careening from the sky.

I landed on my neck in the middle of the crater from the pressure cannon, right near Guyver Four's feet.

"I'm sorry Fukamachi, but I can't allow you to get to your father just yet. Even If that means I have to kill you." He reached for his chest again, but just then the same car from before burst from the surrounding trees and ran directly into Guyver Four sending him flying. A man stepped out. He was tall, wearing a white suit with rolled up sleeves, a pair of bottle green sunglasses and curly shoulder length black hair. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a huge silver pistol.

"NO! It's you!" said Guyver Four, landing on his feet. He charged at the man, who simply looked at him. Guyver Four stopped dead in his tracks. Was a Guyver actually scared of some guy with a gun?!

He aimed carefully at Guyver Four's leg. What did he hope to accomplish?! He fired a single shot. Not only did the bullet easily pierce the Bio-Booster Armor, but it actually ripped apart where it had hit, and completely severed his leg from the thigh down.

"Sho! Get in!" he said in his musky voice. I wasn't about to disobey a man with a gun like that. I just hoped his knowing my name was a good thing.

He hopped into the driver's seat through the open window and immediately put his foot down, and sped us off into the forest.

"You can retract your armor. I'm not going to try to kill you." He took one hand off of the wheel and flicked open his gun, and removed the two used shells from two of the three chambers. He somehow managed to flick two of the loose shells rolling around on the passenger seat into the empty chambers using only his forefinger.

"The last person to say they were my friend shot my eye out. Besides I can't retract Guyver until everything's healed. I wouldn't want to permanently lose this arm. Can I ask you something?"

"Fine."

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU???!!!"

"Me? I'm called Masaki Murakami," he said grinning. "Don't worry. I'm a journalist."


	6. The ReCaffeination

A/N:  WARNING: This is mostly a RE-CAP CHAPTER!!!!  If you happen to know the Guyver back story go ahead and skip to the first page break.  If you are a newcomer than… umm … Your ass is covered, go to hell!!!

** Chapter the Sixth: The Re-Caffeination**

            "Sho had just gotten out from his student council meeting.  We decided to take a walk in the woods by the school.  There was this explosion, or something, and a piece of debris landed near by.  Sho went to check it out and . . ."  My voice faltered.

            "What is it Tetsuro?!  What happened to my Sho?!" said Mr. Fukamachi frantically.

            "That's when he . . . The Guyver . . ."

            "The what?  What are you talking about?"

            "The Guyver.  He found the Guyver.  As far as we can tell The Guyver is a bio-weapon of some kind.  It's some kind of living armor.  When the user feels danger the Guyver armor travels through time and space to protect him.  It makes the wearer a practically perfect soldier.  Speed, endurance, control over gravity and sound waves, telepathy, high frequency blades that can slice through pretty much anything and something called the Mega Smasher.  That's his most powerful weapon.  He can fire a sort of high power particle beam from under his breastplate.  It's powerful enough to crumble mountains if he wanted.  Even if the user's body and mind are completely destroyed, as long as the armor's control medallion is intact, it can reconstruct an exact replicant from nothing.  Now the Chronos Corporation wants to take it from Sho."

            "Chronos?!  Those guy's whose building went down a couple of weeks ago?" said Mr. Fukamachi, his eyes starting to take on a glassy quality.

            "Yeah,"  I said grinning "Sho did that one.  Chronos isn't just some businessmen.  They're really some sort of secret society, and all the people who work for them can turn into these . . . they can turn into monsters.  Called Zoanoids.  Chronos are the ones who discovered the Guyvers, along with some alien journals from the ones who created the planet.  And mankind."  I could tell he was terrified, but it was already too late to stop talking now.  

"They want the Guyvers back, and they'll kill to get it.  Anyone who comes in contact with Guyver winds up dead.  They control the media and the police, so they can always just cover it up by saying it was a freak accident or a terrorist bombing.  They're trying to kill me and Mizuki."  I could feel tears welling in my eyes and the view my shoes began to blur.

            Mr. Fukamachi calmed his jumpy breathing long enough to say, "What about Agito Makashima?  Where does he come into this?"

            "Agito.  You see Chronos originally found three Guyver units.  Sho got the first.  The second went to some Chronos exec, he's dead now.  The third went to Agito.  He's a Chronos Elite and our double agent.  I still don't trust though.  He could still have some alterier motive.  Either way we'll take our allies when we can find them."

            "God, Tetsuro.  This is all like some kind of horrible dream."

            "No.  Dreams must eventually end.  This is an eternal nightmare."  We sat in silence for an undeterminably long while.

            "Hey you in there!" said a guard who had suddenly appeared at the bars of our cell.  He flung open the door and took Mr. Fukamachi roughly by my arm.

            "Where the hell are you taking him?! You bastard, don't you touch him!"  I screamed.  I lunged for him, but too late.  The door slammed just as I reached it. It struck directly on my color bone, knocking me to the floor.  I simply lay there and let myself cry.

            "Reporter, eh?" I said after a long period of silence.  I looked down at my arm to see that it had reformed to its old bio-boosted form.  My sight was returning as well.  

            "I—" he began, but quickly stopped when I retracted my armor.  I observed myself in his rear view mirror, looking for permanent damage.  My right eyebrow was split with a new scar.  That would probably be gone by the next time I bio-boosted.

            "As I was trying to say," he started again "I'm a freelance writer.  I take on a lot of jobs with the Midnight Star."

            "Midnight Star?  Isn't that one of those stupid supermarket tabloids?"

            "Supermarket tabloids?" he said with a note of disgust.  "Those 'supermarket tabloids' are the best investigative reporting on the planet.  Here I'll show you."  He suddenly spun the steering wheel and the car shot down a completely unexpected alleyway, all the while traveling at ludicrous speeds.

            "Acchh!" I spat as he slammed on the brakes in front of a newsstand.  Murakami stepped out of the car, despite the fact that he had left it on, as well as about eight feet from anything even slightly resembling a curb.  He grabbed a few seemingly random news pages, and dropped a handful of crumpled bills in front of a teller who appeared not to care.  He jumped through the window as before and flung the papers over his shoulder at me.

            "Here Mr. I'm-a-man-monster-robot-thing-cloned-from-a-guy-who-was-killed-by-a-big-ass-insect-sasquache-man-and-still-a-cynic.  Take a look at that."

            I took the top paper.  The sight on the front page sent my mind reeling.  It was a full color photo of Murakami firing his pistol at Guyver IV, myself lying nearby.  This spectacle was punctuated by a headline reading _80's Throwback Leads War on Corporation Controlled Alien Invasion!_

            "What?!  But this only happened a few hours ago!!!"  I shouted

            "I told you we were good.  That's The Morning Star, our daytime publication," he said, a grin spreading over his face.

            I shook the amazement from my mind.  I didn't have time to ponder what I should have expected all the time.  Instead I vocalized what I had been thinking since the moment I had stepped in Murakami's car.  "How do you know about Chronos?!  And how the hell do you know my name?!"

            "I have my connections.  You should worry about that later.  All you need to know is that I'm a good guy, and I know where Chronos is keeping your father and the Segawa kids."

            "What?! Where?!"

            "Relic's Point."

            "Relic's Point?  That mountain?"

            "The mountain's a fake.  It's a really a hollowed-out base where Chronos has been developing new Zoanoids.  The guys around the office suspect it's really the site where they discovered a ship left by the aliens that created our race.  Word is, they brought in the famed Zoalord Dr. Valkus to help get rid of you and the Makashima kid."

            "Take me there!  My father and Mizuki—"

            "Don't be stupid.  We're already heading there.  You should try looking out a window sometime."

            "How am I supposed to know what's going on outside when your going one hundred and eighty five," I said sarcastically.

            "Hey, I'm not going to keep my baby from doing what she loves," he said, patting the dashboard.

A/N: Okay, I changed Masaki's countenance a bit.  This is the way I think he _should_ have been.  Slick as an oil spill.

            "Well, Valkus?" I growled to the foul, old bureaucrat.  "My raise?"

            "Hmm . . ." he muttered, appearing to size me up.  "You have done well, Hajime."

            "And?" I said, privately adding "You vile slime," in my mind.

            "Dr. Valkus always rewards his helpers.  I've already submitted the paperwork for you to be given the title of Elite as well as . . . as well as . . ."

            "As well as what, sir?"  Spit it out, old man.

            "Never call me old man again!"

            "What?!"

            "You underestimate my telepathy, you little whelp.  I've given you the chance to become one of the truly powerful, a Zoalord.  Don't make me rethink my position!"

            "I'm . . . I'm sorry, sir."

            "I will let it pass, for now."  Hmm.  Is that right?  Maybe your telepathy isn't as powerful as you boast, if you can't even sense a false apology.

            "Dr. Valkus, sir?"

            "Yes?  What is it, cur?"

            "It's about the Enzyme II project.  I suggest that rather than only using Fumio Fukamachi as a test body, we attempt using the Segawa girl."

            "Not a bad suggestion, but one I've already considered.  Her body may be ill adapted to that particular form.  She may, however, be well suited to be used to reproduce one of the lost number units."  Lost number units?  The Proto-Zoanoids that lost their ability to reproduce during the production process.

            "Yes that's right.  I was going through them before you arrived."  He gestured to a large plasma screen hanging on the wall behind me.  I turned to it.  A lost unit labeled Aptom was currently displayed on the screen.

            "What about the boy?" I thought to him.  I might as well stop speaking to him if he was just going to monitor my thoughts directly.

            His voice echoed from deep within my skull, "I haven't quite decided yet.  Now go, I have some matters to deal with.  A situation with young Agito Makashima."

            I left as hastily as I could, struggling to suppress my thoughts.  I passed Agito just as I stepped over the threshold to Valkus's office.  The door closed behind me and I knew it was safe to think again.

            Hmm . . . That Proto-Zoalord's appearance in the woods, Valkus experimenting with the lost units, and now something was going on with Zeus.  All these things could get in the way of my plans.  It doesn't matter.  I've already achieved my goal.  With the power of a Zoalord as well as my present control over certain puppets, I will be more than Zeus.  I will be Chronos.

A/N: And there's the end of my re-cap chapter.  This fic is now slightly more Non-Guyver-fan friendly.  Hope that end bit gives a little more insight on Hajime.


	7. Executions Take Time

Haha!  I finally got back to working on this thing.  I've gotten a bit distracted with my new Devil May Cry fanfic (coming soon) and school so I haven't been able to even glance at this hunk o' junk this entire month.  Enough blabbing, tally forth!

**Chapter the Seventh: Executions Take Time**

            The neon green blur of the morphgenesis fluid burned away at my eyes.  Slowly mutating the tissues.  My body floated hunched in a fetal position among anonymous nutrients and aminos.  A cord pierced through my flesh delivering liquid enhancement into my bloodstream and a tube hung out of even the most intimate orifice.  Strings of my own blood moved throughout the tank, occasionally drifting into my line of vision.

            But cruelest of all were the glass-obscured white-coat professors strolling past my development tube.  Tapping at their clipboard or speaking to one another about the condition of 'the new Zoalord type.'  And not for no reason was I to be this new type.  Their lips revealed every word they spoke about me.

            "Hajime Volnutt now incomplete at stage four," said one as another checked something off.  Stage four.  My cue would be soon, within the week.  Until then, I closed my eyes and waited to drift into an uneasy sleep.

            After all, it takes time to execute a plan.

            "Your friend Agito agreed to let us hold up in his Cabin up near the mountain," said Murakami as he maneuvered the car through the stream of cars coming down the wrong side of the road.

            "Agito has a cabin in the woods?!" I asked struggling to keep the reporter's frantic driving from tossing me through the windshield.  The lack of seat belts really wasn't helping my cause.

            "Yeah.  He says he'll meet up with us in a couple of days."

            "Erm.  Truck."

            "Not a problem."  He twiddled the wheel, and cleared the truck in some impossible way that not even I could figure out.  "I think he's going to try and bust your friends before we even got to have any fun."

            "I think I can get in contact with him through the – Wait a second!  You know about Agito?!  Your no ordinary reporter!"

            "Yeah, you caught me.  I'm a reporter with a gun.  And an itchy trigger finger."

            "Okay, I won't ask anymore questions."

            "Dr. Valkus!"

"Dammit private, what's going on at the scientific levels."

            The Zoanoid troop folded momentarily before Valkus.  "There's been a … a… A Guyver intrusion, sir.  Two of them"

            "Are you sure?!" came the Zoalord's voice, gripping tightly around his mind.

            "Y-yessir.  Guyver III has appeared on the isolation deck.  It looks like he may have taken the Enzyme II test units."  The footsoldier clamped his eyelids together, waiting for the blow to fall.

            Valkus, however looked suddenly relaxed.  "That is no problem.  It may very well prove a perfect opportunity for a field test."  He quickly put away the grin that was beginning to creep across his face and stared fixedly at the troop.  "And the second?"

            "In the development labs.  Several experimental tubes where destroyed.  Including the one containing the Zoalord."

            "What?!  What of Volnutt's whereabouts?"

            "We have reason to believe he was killed along with six others."

            "Hmmm."  Valkus's eyes sharpened suddenly.  "In which direction did Guyver I retreat to?!"

            "It wasn't Guyver I sir.  It was the winged one that was sighted in the ones three days ago."  Valkus sputtered for a second, apparently dumbfounded.  "Sir., he escaped directly after the incident.  The reconnaissance team couldn't find a trace."

            Their was a thirty second pause where the only sound was the steady thumping of the arteries surging blood to his jewel.  "Very well.  Add the dead experimental Zoanoid's call numbers to the Lost Number list."

            The caretakers of Agito's Cabin were nothing if not cheery.

            Onuma was a kindly old man, skinny and frail.  His parental kindliness towards our entire situation was almost disturbing.  One could easily sit down and discuss the secret workings of Chronos with him, and never see the warm smile flicker from his face.

            The only member of Onuma's cleaning staff was his granddaughter, Shizu.  She was one of those rare cases where 'beautiful' seemed almost an understatement.  Vivacious would probably be more accurate.  She had sleek, black hair that ran down to her waste and soothingly dark eyes, long tunnels of wisdom.  She seemed to only wear simple clothing that hung loosely from her body, creating an air of a calmly flowing stream.  She could always be seen treading about the house attending to various busy-jobs, taking water to scrub this, or cooking that.

            "Murakami," I said to the reporter, who was currently hunched over a map of the mountains marking points in red Sharpie, "Agito contacted me last night."

            "Master Agito?" said a passing Onuma, carrying a basket full of Muarakami's identical white blazers.

            "Yeah.  He says that we should meet him in a clearing just west of here pretty soon."  Murakami's Eyes scanned over his rumpled map.

            "Here," he said indicating the clearing with a gesture that my brain somehow interpreted as 'sexy.'

"I think he's got my father and the others!"

"Hrm," said Murakami in thought. "That could mean that could mean Chronos will up the security.  Be ready to transform into the Guyver at any time."  His tone was oddly subdued and business-like

"You just keep that gun of yours loaded."

A/N:  If you didn't get the idea from the title, you should stay tuned 'cause all of this crap that we pretty much saw in the anime and read in the manga will end eventually, and all of the stuff with Guyver IV will start to make sense.  Sorta.


End file.
